Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. Hei 11-155464 discloses a prior-art apparatus. It includes a cutter that is located at a lower opening of a hopper that can receive a large block of dough. The cutter cuts the large block of dough into dough pieces that have a predetermined length and a constant volume. The dough pieces are fed, by a conveyor that is positioned below the cutter, to a forming hopper. Then the dough pieces are supplied downward to a dough-feeder section. It has a plurality of rollers that are positioned like a V. The dough pieces are formed by the dough-feeder section as a sheet. Then the dough sheet is fed by a conveyor that is positioned below the dough-feeder section to the next step.
The prior-art apparatus can advantageously and continuously form large blocks of dough into a sheet. However, it has a disadvantage in that it cannot but be relatively large. This disadvantage should be overcome. Also, the prior-art apparatus has another disadvantage in that it is difficult to clean it when it is stopped or to assemble it. Also, such a prior-art apparatus has a metering conveyor It measures the part of the weight of dough that is on it. The cutter cuts part of the dough when its weight reaches a predetermined value. If flour adheres to the surface of the metering conveyor, the accuracy of the measurement can decrease.